Spectroscopy is a widely applied analytical method for chemical and material analysis. However, background signals often inhere in spectroscopy data obtained from a target sample's spectrum, due to the sample's container, and “noises” or static produced by instrument response fluctuations, data transmission, and the like.
Removing such background signals or noise from spectral data to reveal the true signal of the sample is very important for many qualitative and quantitative spectroscopic applications. For instance, background removal is useful before entering a spectrum into a database. This is often necessary for consistency, to make all spectra have a flat background. A flat background improves overall display of the spectra, peak selection and identification, and spectral library searching. Background noise included in spectral data has a negative effect on most searching algorithms.